Sometimes it looks as though the whole of the Glass project is one big experiment. It's hardly experimental technology. It's an experiment in how to use a consumer-grade heads up display. But the experiment goes much deeper than hardware and apps. It goes deep, in fact, into Google's crowd-based future.

Yes, we know the glass itself has strong experimental elements. What would a perfect consumer-centric heads up display look like? What would it be capable of?

These are the questions Google began to ask a few months back when it offered up Explorer versions of the product.

8,000 people jumped at the opportunity to find out and share the usage patterns with Google, plus of course 2.000 developers who got the chance to build applications before the product launches.

We’re counting on you to get Glass to the people you think will make great Explorers. More Explorers means more feedback, and more feedback means better Glass.

The new generation of Explorer will be asked to pay $1500, just like Gen 1 were. Gen 1 though is about to get a new version of the hardware - the UK website The Register interprets it as a subtle way for Google to recall the first consumer version of the product.

Google is gently recalling the first iteration of its Glass product by offering to swap out the head-mounted camera of doom with a new version of the hardware.

So while Google has been quietly testing Glass and not saying a whole lot about the results, it has also been testing a new way to fund and market a new high tech product.

Go back to the old days of high tech marketing and often you would see a new product in the market with a very high price target, inaccessible to the eventual intended market. Look right now at Samsung'sOLED TV for example. It can cost $9,000 - $11,000 depending on where you are.

That's a hard sell. But imagine if Samsung's pitch had been "come and invent the future of television with us". The entry price might still have been $10,000, maybe it could be less without a distributor and retailer margin. But it would stand a strong chance of appealing to the ultra geek and the wealthy who want to be at the cutting edge and a part of something new. The wealthy who want to be engaged.

Google is managing this process exceptionally well with Glass. And if all goes according to plan, its product development process will have earned about $50 million, on top of earning the company a huge amount of kudos.

In essence Google has crowdfunded Glass and has shown big business how crowdfunding can be done. In essence it is a giant Kickstarter campaign in all but name. But there is also an element of double-incentive marketing about it. It's not that Google will offer discounts to newbies and to existing Explorers when they bring a newbie in, but they are offering a replacement piece of kit and access to the cool of being a Glass Explorer.

The pattern of crowd-based funding and marketing is writ large if you look long enough. It's a giant experiment in crowd funding, social decision making and crowd marketing.